An Overture on Time and Space
by Bibliophallic
Summary: The saga is over. The prize has been won. There is an infinite universe at his disposal, but without any immediate worlds to shape, or domains to oversee, John finally has a few seconds to rest. But someone's coming... A horror which words can hardly describe, appears right in his lap! With nowhere to run, and Aradia by his side, they face down the perils of a life after Game Over.


John lays back on a grassy knoll in his front lawn, cradled by a blanket; piled high with all manner of cushions and pillows. Arms folded back behind his head, he stares at a cloudless midnight sky, basking in the glow of trillions of newborn stars. He can't believe that they're all younger than he is; yet beaming brightly all the same. He casts back a bright smile into the darkness; sighing contentedly, hoping that they could tell. A quick meteorite streaks across the blackness, and he closes his eyes to make a wish.

Suddenly, the sky splits open, in a violent crackle of force, heat, and lightning, as reality shatters before him. He looks above in disbelief... "No," he begs. "You can't be here... You can't!" He demands explanations from an apathetic universe as the deathless monstrosity stalks out from the void; green skull gleaming in stark contrast to the gentle moonlit night.

"You're dead!" he pleads, "We deserve this reward! We did everything Skaia asked of us! Why are you here?! **Why won't you let us rest?!** " Lord English simply parts his gaping maw, indifferent to the futile mutterings of a mere immortal. There's a bright flash, and John starts to zap away, but it's too late. His guard was down... This is where his story e-

"Enjoying yourself out here?" The cheerful voice shakes him from his torpor, with a furious jolt.

Barely staying his hand from from zapping off in fright, he stutters, clambering to regain his bearings in lieu of the the violent awakening.

 **" _?_ Who-"**

 _Jeez,_ he didn't even realize he had fallen asleep! He bolts upright, zipping his head around in circles, his glance falls perchance on the red tunic of a Maid. Next comes the crimson gear emblazoned on her chest; then the chiseled gray hide of an alien insectoid, and the warm smile adorning her rust-borne cheeks, and finally to rest in the harrowing gaze of someone with a wisdom far beyond their years.

She leans over him, curiously; obfuscating his view of the sky as a goofy grin explodes across his face, in pleasant surprise. "Oh, hey Aradia!" he replies, gesturing to the heavens. "Yeah, it's a gorgeous night...

"You know," he continues, petting the pile of pillows beside him, "You're welcome to join me!"

She smirks, settling down into the pile beside him, and turning her gaze up into the stars as well. "You're _right,_ " she gasps, "...It's beautiful."

"Yeah! I know!" he fires back, excitedly, trailing off into the night. An abject silence grows between them, as the sound of crickets singing blissfully in the pale moonlight climbs to a natural crescendo; both losing themselves in the serene atmosphere of a mid-summer's night.

They sit like this for what feels like hours, but neither of them dare take a moment to give a shit about that. The moon crawls across the sky, and they each drift into their own little worlds.

* * *

Eventually, he breaks the silence, turning to face her, with the most delicate of whispers.

"Hey, you still awake?"

"Yes, I am," she sighs, turning to face him in tandem. "Trolls are generally nocturnal, remember?"

"Oh yeah..." he allows a second for that to settle in before he presses on. "So, was this what it was like?"

Tracing a finger serendipitously on a pillow separating the two of them, he adds, "Back on your planet, I mean..."

"Aside from the additional moon back there, yes. It was similar." she muses, dreamily drawing back memories from a past long-abandoned.

"You could hear the occasional call of some lusus off in the distance, every once in a while... Sometimes I would pass by someone else if I wandered far enough way from my hive,"

"Wow... That must have been kind of scary, huh? Especially due to the caste system... God, I can't even imagine!"

"I think kids always have some idea of situational invincibility in their heads. I know I did; even with the dead reminding me otherwise, every other day..." She trailed off, rolling her next words around on her tongue; tasting each phrase's tone, cadence, and meter, before finally continuing... "I- I liked to see the beauty in it; It's why I loved exploring... and flarping..."

"Yeah, I guess you kind of have to deal with death that way, when you're practically meeting it every day. It had to have been a constant presence for you..."

"Of course it was! It's so hard to forget! Nobody wants to let you forget!"

"I mean, you guys used to have the lowest life span, right?" he interjected, callously.

"That's right..." she paused to release a huff of wistful breath into the blackness; watching the condensation dance in the air for a moment before fading away. "The average for my caste would have been around 30 sweeps, I believe."

"Which is like; what, 65 years?"

"Give or take, Yeah."

"Jeez..." he runs an exasperated hand through his messy, grass-laden coiffe. For a moment, all is still again. He picks several seed packets from his hair, and -rolling them between his fingertips- relishes each one's specific texture and give; before tossing it into the rolling plain.

"I guess it must be pretty thrilling," he continues, finally, with a debris-free head of hair. "Now that you're practically immortal, and all..."

"I'm not sure if it will ever strike me that way; given the fact that I've already died," she admitted, serenely. "I can accept this being part of my life now, but comparing it to what it would have been is something else entirely!"

"What do you mean?"

She casts an affirmational glance his way, before grinning widely; turning back to the sky; and pressing onward in the breathy, polished cadence of a tale she's recited a million different times. She seemed absolutely giddy.

"Well! What can I say?!" she started off with a croon. "I see my existence as having a pretty big split in it. Growing up on Alternia was one, and the rift is the time I was dead.

"This is the other side; existing and being alive right now... and it feels so normal! Like, this was how I was always meant to be... The dead don't bother me anymore; I can't hear them like I used to... Everything is full of the hope I used to see! It's right!

"The past and how things used to be just doesn't have much connection with me anymore," she added finally, "even in comparisons..."

"Huh... So it's like you and that other era were completely different experiences?"

"Yeah, that's what it feels like!"

"I think I can kind of picture that..." he boasts through a furrowed brow, "I mean, Dave's always talking about being confronted with his own history... I think that's just kind of the legacy of a time player; you know? Having to face how different you were, all the time..."

"It makes sense. You have a point there."

"It must be jarring, yeah." he sighs, "Was it difficult getting readjusted to living?"

"I might have been a little too enthusiastic about everything at first," she chuckles.

"How about now?"

"I'm still enthusiastic about things! I love being back in the middle of this with everyone!"

"Yeah, like what kinds of things?"

"I like being able to turn up somewhere by surprise, and not be automatically expected to spell out some message of potential doom! I like being regarded as... more of a person, I guess?" she furls her words, rolling them into the inky black void of night. "I don't think people ever saw me the same while I was a ghost... or a robot."

"Yeah, I think I can imagine that."

"It wasn't a nice time," she admits, preening the air of its somber flavor. "but it's over now, and I don't need to worry about it!"

He stares at her for a moment, before turning his attention back to the stars. "Must be a relief, huh?"

She lets out a deep, long sigh, as she settles back into the comforting embrace of the pillows beneath.

"More than you can imagine, John... More than you can imagine."

"Do you ever miss it, though?"

"I guess, if I miss anything about it, it's the perception that things used to be simpler. Other than that, I can't say I would prefer it over now."

"Yeah, but I guess there's some comfort in knowing that you had a place in the grand scheme of things, right?"

"I'm not sure about that. My place in the grand scheme of things was all I ever heard about for sweeps; ever since I hatched. It was **big,** and it was **necessary,** and it was **inescapable.** I like no having any specific duty now."

" _Oh yeah!_ Shit. Right... I keep forgetting that you had psychic powers."

"They were very common among us lowbloods, but I imagine it would be a pretty cool thing from your point of view."

"I had a totally different experience from yours..." he practically grumbled, to no one in particular.

She giggled jovially, "No kidding! Do you miss where you used to be?"

"I don't know, I mean;" he uttered, haltingly, "it wasn't _super great,_ but it wasn't very interesting. I was just... average! ...An every man, you might say.

"The hardest thing I had to come to terms with was **how special I turned out to _be!_** "

"You were an important part of things after all!"

He chuckles ecstatically, " **Yeah!** "

"Was it fun, being able to explore your story so... _cleanly,_ I guess ...? not knowing how things would turn out in the end, and not steering it any specific way; in the beginning."

"It was kind of thrilling getting to explore it, and experience it all."

"I saw your planet through trollian's viewports, way back when you were all getting started... It looked nice. I'll bet it was a great exploring ground."

"Yeah, it was pretty **nuts.** " A wistful smile flits across his cheeks as he recalls how very picturesque his land was. The wind dancing, melodiously, across the pipes of the organ; the shimmering rainbow of reflections on the ceilings of caves as the iridescent mushrooms reflected against a running rivulet of oil; the callous crunch of grist underfoot after felling a particularly stubborn imp; they all clashed together in a sensual cacophony of melodic vibrance. A slight gasp stumbles from his lips...

He'd miss it, after all.

"...To think that all this was created just for me, and to be the first one to actually succeed in his quest... I don't know, it's kind of hard to explain the gravity of it all."

"I'm not surprised."

"What was your planet like?"

Ah, now it was her time to reminisce; "The Land of Quartz and Melody... It was big, covered in crystals, and all the buildings were themed after music boxes. Quartz music boxes were actually one of the items I recovered there. They let me travel through time before I god tiered.

"It was pretty, in an odd way... Sometimes the wind would push the handles on the smaller buildings and a few music chimes would ring out."

"Oh..." he sighed along, setting the scene in his mind's eye. "That _does_ sound pretty! Did you like the sound of chimes?"

"I like to think I did! I spent most of my time on it as a robot. I liked to wander through the quartz when no one else was there on their own game quests, and I had some precious time left to spare."

"It sounds eerily peaceful."

"I like thinking back on it now. I definitely considered it a solace until it was destroyed."

He scowled, despondently. "I wish we could have saved it..."

"I'm not too torn up over it. It's a pretty memory, but I'm fine with it staying that way... Not to say I'm biased against music boxes though; I still like those very much!"

"Ah. Well, I'm glad you're here, regardless!" he added with a warm smile.

"I am too; thanks John!" she grinned back.

He sticks out his tongue complacently, "It's always nice having someone to spend the night with."

"I completely agree!"

He feigned interest in a small insect that had settled on the pillow next to him.

She didn't notice, still looking up at the stars...

* * *

"It's amazing to think about how we all traveled among those stars... isn't it?"

"Yeah, it's kind of crazy..." he nodded.

"How about the revelation that the universe is just a giant astral frog?"

Laughing fondly, "Yeah that was ridiculous!"

"Yes! How silly! I guess the Incipisphere has a sense of humor, huh?"

"A very weird one,"

"I wonder if the fact that I was prototyped with one was part of the joke."

John gasps, _"You were a frog once?"_

" **Yeah!** I self-prototyped with a sprite; similar to what davesprite did, except I was a frog...

"You know how he would caw, sometimes?"

John nodded, absentmindedly.

"I would ribbit."

"Oh..."

"Fun fact, by the way; the dersites didn't like frogs. They really hated them."

"I guess that made you pretty unpopular, huh?"

"That's why the frog was prototyped in the first place!"

"So that you would be unpopular?"

"No!" she laughed, "The dersite and prospitian queens get their powers from the rings that hold the traits of the tier one prototypings of the sprites. It's what makes the black queen such a formidable final boss! But ours didn't wear her ring when the time to fight came, because one of the prototypes was a frog."

"Right," he nodded, "but why did you have to be a frog too?"

"Because I needed to act the part of the guide again, and the sprites gain knowledge of the games' inner workings; even though they have to deliver it in the form of vague, and often frustrating answers...

"which honestly wasn't much of a change from before," she muddled, "I still did that as a ghost on Alternia!"

"So you were kind of like Jade for a while, huh?"

"Something like that."

"I see ...

Boy, it seems like you practically did everything!"

"I was set the responsibility of setting our entire session up! I brought Sollux the original game code for him to modify, and I did what I was told in order to keep the session on track, to deliver the outcome necessary to make your universe."

"...'Told?' Told by who? The dead?"

"Yeah... Though, now I wonder if they were being manipulated themselves in turn..."

"Yeah, I suppose they could be, I mean, how exactly did these guys know all this shit about the session anyway?"

"Being dead is a weird thing, John; and ghosts are even weirder."

"I guess I wouldn't know..." he shrugged.

"Well, yeah! Feferi's pact to make the dream bubbles changed everything! This is how it was before that, the way I experienced it...

"The ghosts weren't much more than broken remnants. Some were stronger than others, and could remember themselves; others were basically whispers in a dark empty cave. They gravitate to people who can hear them.

"They aren't grounded the way we are, so sometimes they could glimpse into the streams of time, or feel the pull that tells them that somebody is going to join them. They liked to tell me about my death; how it would be young and sudden, but that I shouldn't feel bad, because I would keep a strong presence on Alternia. I wasn't sure how to feel about it.

"Other times, they can hear the other whispers of the Incipisphere; the Horrorterrors idly discussing the fates of far-off universes, or half-formed instructions telling of a time and a place to do a certain task. After my death, I was given times and locations. I went to every single one.

"Ghosts can also be tied to things, and skilled psychics can raise them and make them visible to other people, but that's a different story..."

"Yeah, Vriska told me about that! Is that what you did? You showed her the consequences of her actions?"

"Yeah... The ghosts of people she fed to her spider; after she pushed Tavros off a cliff."

"Ah..." he pauses, half-way sitting up to read your features; face wrought in astonishment.

"So you did it, knowing all along that she would kill you for it?!"

She turns her attention toward him as well, a nonplussed look of admission on her features. "Well, I can't say I knew she would kill me for it. I knew that I was supposed to die at the hands of a friend... I remember the ghosts were being unusually silent when I made the decision to raise them for Vriska, but I didn't care."

"God... That's awful;" he gasped "You cared about Tavros that much?"

"He was one of my best friends, and he didn't have many others at that time. We needed to stick together!"

"Vriska told me you guys were flarp partners, but I didn't realize that you died for him!"

"We nicknamed ourselves team charge! It was a lot of fun! ...and I didn't intend to die, really. It was more in revenge, than taking a strike for him. Tavros didn't want me to do anything."

"Because he was afraid, right?"

"Yeah..."

A chill settles into the midst of their company. The stars twinkle silently overhead. Aradia meditates on the memory of her fallen comrade... all the years spent slowly coaxing him out from his shell; all the hours spent cheering him on; all the sweet misgivings and gentle notes of confidence shared between them.

She'd miss him, after all...

* * *

He sighs, gently nudging her from her sorrow-clad stupor. "It's kind of funny how it all turned out, isn't it? You guys went through so much pain and turmoil, just to have the reward snatched out from under you. Then, after saving all of reality from an all-consuming time demon, we have this reward kind of thrust on us like some kind of consolation prize!

"I mean, don't get me wrong, it's nice. I'm definitely not saying it's not an incredible sight; but somehow, after all we had done, I kind of pictured that there would be _more?_ You know?"

"A simple ending like this may not be what we expected or what we wanted, but maybe its what we needed."

"Heh, maybe..."

He allows himself to collapse onto the pillows below, blowing raspberries with his lips for effect. "I'm glad you see it that way; I wish all our friends were as contented...  
I guess contention never truly was our strongest suit; was it?"

"I wish they were too, but it takes time to see the bigger picture... and who knows! Maybe there will be some surprises waiting that we don't know about yet!"

"Yeah, but I doubt it... Only one way to find out, right?"

He grinned, "Keep going forward!"

"Yeah! and we are all very good at that!

"Well, most of us," he added, with almost a sense of shame for his more bitter comrades, bearing down on his words.

"Those who aren't can stand to be carried with the rest for a little bit!"

She blew a raspberry as well; eliciting a righteous fit of giggles from her wide-eyed companion.

"Hehehehehe! Jeez, you're so ...I dunno, wise?" he finally sighs; "Is that what happens when you play the guide for so long?"

"I think being a sprite-ghost, and then a time travelling listener to the dreaming dead does that to a person..." she shrugs.

"Do you ever wonder what your life would be like without any of this?

"Without sBURB;

"without the ghosts;

"without _anything?_ "

"Not nearly as fun, probably!

"and... a lot shorter."

"Yeah..." John casts his eyes toward the horizon, dismally.

"I assume the argument involving Vriska, and Tavros, would still happen... I wonder if my presence would have remained as strongly as it did if there was no need to guide an apocalypse to my planet."

"Probably... God, would you even need to fight for dominance?" he patted her forearm, excitedly, as he rushed to get the words out.

"I mean...! Oh my god! The dancestors said that their world was completely different, right?!"

"Wow... True! I guess it all started back there, didn't it?"

"Yeah, it's all that _guardian's_ fault..." John practically spits the words. "He made your world awful so that the game could happen!"

"I wonder what kind of person I was on Beforus..." she wonders aloud.

"You never asked them?"

"Well, I wanted to talk to Damara about it, but we always got sidetracked. She wasn't exactly... treated well by the world; either."

"Yeah, it seems like Meenah just has a knack of leading the world to oblivion, huh?"

"She sure does."

"She did it in both of your sessions, somehow."

"For the record she was scarier doing that as an Alternian empress than she was doing that as a Beforan teen."

He can't help but chuckle a bit at that, "That's the truth!"

"Yet, she and Damara are set against each other both times, too."

"Huh... That _is_ what happened, isn't it?"

"Why don't two out of three Megidos get nice lives?! I don't think this is a very fair statistic."

He simply shrugs. "If I were writing your story, I'd let you have a nice life."

"Mine is nice! It's Damara I'm worried about; both her Beforan self, and the version of her that became my ancestor... They called her The Demoness, you know? Her Alternian alias. All I could find about my ancestry was the occasional mark of our symbol alongside old texts, scrawled in fear."

"Yeah, it sounds like an awful life. Awful and lonely..." he frowns, empathetically.

"She deserved better."

"I agree! I think a lot of our friends should have had a greater chance at happiness..."

"You're right... but unfortunately, I guess it just wasn't for them..."

"I wonder what other sessions are like..." he stares off into the distance, loosing the reins on his imagination; "Are they all like this; with **killer time skeletons** who have **pool balls for eyes**?"

"Probably not..."

He continued, theorizing, "...or were we born from terror, to snuff out the beast that could destroy all of reality?"

"or maybe he really _can't_ be destroyed, and just gets pushed around between sessions, and we got lucky?" she finished his thought,

"or unlucky..."

"It's all the same thing, really."

"I guess."

"I think that's one mystery I'm willing to leave alone for now, though."

"It kind of seems like a colossal effort for the story to be yet unfinished, don't you think?

"I mean, for three sessions to work in concert toward one common goal is a bit tremendous! _Especially_ to leave a job half-done!"

"How do we ever really know when a story is done though? Beginnings and endings tend to tangle together, only the characters truly change. Maybe this story isn't done, but our chapter in it is.

"Maybe it all really is finished and we need to write our own end in. People who are gone permanently can't do that.

"Maybe we aren't done at all, and this is part two!"

"That would piss me off. I fought hard! I played my part! I think I deserve a bit of good fortune! We _**all** do!_ "

"If it makes you feel better, I don't actually think that any other big baddies are going to burst out from behind the clouds..." she quirks an eyebrow, a raising a hand to comfortingly pat the young demigod on the forehead. Failing that, she just manages to smother his face with her hand, in something akin to a reverse facepalm.

He giggles, swatting her hand away playfully. Then, he grabs her wrist, pulling her hand away; unveiling a wide, buck-toothed grin, for good measure. "Hehe okay, yeah right! I'm sure that any big baddies out there are scared of us, and rightfully so!" She almost immediately injects herself back into the fray, bringing her spare hand around, and supporting herself on her elbow, as he continues... "I'm sure we garnered **_qu_ _i_** _ **te** a reputation,_ after saving the entirety of existence from the eventual destruction of an invincible foe..."

"I'm sure you just blew any prospective troublemakers right away!" She deftly boops him on the nose while his guard is down; with a mischievous grin. **John's prankster's gambit suffers critical damage.** A small tear teases at the corner of his eye as his 5-year-streak bonus comes to an end, ticking away in the margins.

"...Exactly," he mutters from a hundred miles away.

"We definitely won't be having any of those problems!" she continues on, completely oblivious to the terrors she has wrought with her friendly gesture.

"I sure as hell better not," he agrees, shaking the matter from his head, and permitting a shallow smile to finally come to fruition.

"I can always retcon them out of existence if we do!" she winks. John's mind folds backwards into itself; collapsing into a diabetic spime. Why are all his friends so cute all the damned time?!

"You know," she continued, "assuming the existence of such a problem stemmed from a faulty divergence in a timeline or something like that..."

"or I can DOUBLE-retcon them out of existence, considering I can jump to alternate realities at will; which is bullshit, but whatever..." He started off excited, polite japery bursting in his voice, but mentioning his reality jumping skills reminded him of his late friends... By the end of the sentence, there was hardly any life left in it.

A short break in the conversational flow allowed the mood to settle a bit. Aradia searched his face, curiously befuddled, and clearly concerned.

* * *

"...Are you o-?"

" **I still feel bad, you know?!** " Just as she begins to ask, he cuts her off with the answer. "because those realities I leave behind aren't any more better off without me... I'm just- like- _a captain bailing ship after we begin to sink._ How do you time players do it so _casually?_ "

Her glance falls groundward, as she slowly shakes her head. "Long and hard lessons about necessary casualties, and _a lot_ of dead alternate selves." John looks up at her, taking his own turn at the gate of concern. Did he touch a nerve? He hopes she's going to be okay.

Releasing her elbow from its foothold, she collapses onto the pile once more, huffing into an outstretched palm, "The former thing didn't strike me as hard... one of the benefits of being an emotionally detached ghost during the time all the necessary casualties were taking place, I suppose; if there are any benefits to be had... but you saw how it affected Dave, I'm sure!"

"Yeah..." A chill runs over him as he flashes back to the gargantuan logs of post-traumatic fallout he had to visit first-hand; how helpless he felt, as he sat by and watched his best friend tear himself to pieces; how heavily the weight of all his responsibility bore down on him.

"H-how do you even handle watching your friends die _over..._ and _over...?_ "

"I didn't like it." She shakes her head, wrinkling her brow, and searching the skies for an answer, as she speaks. "I kept pushing the emotionally detached thing so I wouldn't have to address it... but I think that ended up doing more harm in the end!

"It was better after tiering. I decided to stay in the dream bubbles. That way, I could help everyone I had disregarded before."

"Yeah, I see how that could be cathartic for you."

"It was better in the long run too, I feel. **That many broken and frayed ends in one place just can't be good...** "

"I agree. Everyone deserves a second chance! I only wish I could have done the same..."

The tears have returned, with a furious vengeance! The forces of sorrow and despair claw and pull at the corners of his eyes, and dig their tepid finger tips into his throat; making his voice choke and warble. "We didn't get dream bubbles on our trip. It was just Jade and I, all alone for three years..."

"In a way you kind of did. Your bullshit dimension jumping gave everyone here a second chance!"

"Yeah, but-" He fights to keep his voice steady, biting his lower lip as his chest begins to heave.

 **"I don't _know_ these guys,... not really.**

"Sure, you can tell me that they're all _'technically'_ the same people, and that we all had the same experiences, but everyone I grew up with are **_dead!  
_** **I have to live with that!** "

She reaches over, placing a gentle, reassuring touch onto his stricken, tear soaked cheek. "John..." she turns his face back to her, his lipid pools of crystal blue gazing deep into her own eyes; soulful, compassionate, and wise beyond their years. "I dealt with alternates for a _long time..._ I know how you feel, John; and it **sucks.** "

He sniffs a little bit, closing his eyes, and placing a stalwart hand on your own. **"Yeah..."**

She takes his hand and squeezes it gently. "None of us are really the same people we came in as... different bodies, different minds, different attitudes... a patchwork version of the teams we used to be."

He squeezes her hand right back, pulling it from his face and slowly shaking his head, as he uncaptchalogues a box of tissues; aggressively snivelling. "God..."

They both reach for the box with their spare hands, wrestling briefly for the right to take care of him, but he quickly accedes, stowing his shameful hands away, as she feverishly mops her poor palhoncho's face. "The potential for each and every single other version of ourselves is still with us;" she concedes, soothingly. "We're different, but we still share those similarities- those potentials... with all our other selves...

"The friends you have now carry their own same selves in that manner! It isn't the same; but- in a manner of speaking- they're still there!" She finished wiping all of his messy features, flashing him a powerful smile.

"Just like the thirteen year old who first picked up the copy of sBURB... Is still somewhere in you." She gives his hand another squeeze.

Cradling her hand in the cleft of his breast, he responds; "Yeah, I guess you're right..."

"but I still kind of wish that I could find the people I died with;" he almost whispers, as if somehow ashamed to let anyone know. She feels his pounding heartbeat, drumming feverishly with his every passing word.

"You know? If not to say sorry, just maybe-

"to say goodbye?"

"I understand... The attachments we form cannot be forgotten so easily."

"yeah."

"..."

"I... I miss them... you know?"

She offers a concurrent nod, spreading her fingers out against his chest, to more wholly appreciate his warmth.

"They were all taken from me so suddenly! It's so unfair! I feel like I've failed them, somehow!"

"They miss you too," she offers, hopefully. "But they understand, and they don't hold anything against you!"

"I'm sure..." he nods, absentmindedly picturing a furious cavalcade of former friends and allies all the same.

"and **I** _**know!**_ " she shouts, almost as if she could read the doubts on his face. She curls her fingers into a fist, tugging violently on his shirt. "John, I saw all the dead, _remember?_ "

"Oh, yeah..." Well, that seemed to perk him up!

"I keep forgetting that the outer ring is timeless and people who haven't died yet are already there..."

"I'm good at wrapping up loose ends." She smiled, pleased to find that he has some sense in him. "Even the ones that haven't happened yet!"

John nods, setting his cheek back down against the pillow beneath. He sighs, allowing her words to marinate in his head... A cool breeze whistles between the valleys.

* * *

"I-is that why you're here? To wrap up my loose end?"

She sighs, losing the smile almost as quickly as she had brought it into life.

"Maybe," she lets go of his shirt, letting him fall away, as she turns her eyes skyward once more.

Ever the oblivious scamp, John presses on, almost demanding "You came here to help me to move on?"

"John!" she practically hisses aloud, throwing her hands to the heavens in a silent bid for deliverance from this fresh brand of hell. "Maybe it's just nice to talk under the stars!"

He shrinks at her sudden reproach, turning demure as he apologizes. "Yeah... You're right- I'm sorry, that was presumptuous of me..."

She sighs again, reeling at his troubled reaction. She might have gone a bit too far... "Oh, John... It's ok..."

Her glowing smile returns again in full force, as she looks to him pitifully. "I'll tell you a secret though... It's that nice talks under the stars can do more to help someone heal than intentional end-wrapping ever could! We can't stay in the same mindset forever.

"In the bubbles, I would go in knowing I had to bring someone to see a specific fact; but nobody realizes that was only half the battle! Figuring out the rest means good friends and conversation; which I figured you had coming in abundance... but we've never been able to talk that much before!" she bites her tongue, endearingly ingenuous. Ohhhhhh, he wants to pinch her cheeks; she's so adorable.

But even someone like him knows that's a bad idea at this point.

"True..." he mumbles, feigning a reality where he's not seething with affectionate urges. "You always seemed to have more important things to do, I guess..."

"Really? Like what?" she seemed genuinely surprised.

"I don't know, like time-freeze Lord English so he wouldn't perma-kill your best friend?"

"Granted... Ok, yeah; you have a point there..." She'd almost forgotten that there was a period of time where she was practically unreachable to the outside world... "but my entire gig is kind of based on the fact that I always have time to spare!" she fires back with a devastating wink and finger gun combo.

 **It's very effective!** He chuckles like a damned fool. "Hehehehehe! Okay, yeah...

"You know, all things considered, you're probably a lot older than me now. Who knows how long you were in the outer ring!"

"I've honestly lost track... I never bothered to keep a linear calendar for myself," she admits.

"I was just travelling for three years, there's no way you could have spoken to every single dead person in all of existence between all three of our sessions in that time. It just isn't possible!"

"There were plenty of time shenanigans... Factoring in extra time I took to relax between talks."

"Yeah, no wonder you're so wise! You're like ...a sage, or something!"

"A very immortal sage, apparently! I don't look much older than everyone else, do I?!"

"Not really... I don't think we really age, honestly."

"6-7 sweeps forever...

 **"Wow."**

"Yeah,"

"Remember when I mentioned new chapters to our own stories? No matter what happens, it seems like were far from finished...

"I kind of like the sage connotation, though," she admitted. "It sounds like some sort of- ancient protector!"

"Thanks! I came up with it myself."

"I could work with that!"

"Isn't that what we are, though?! We're supposed to protect the inhabitants of this universe we created, and guide them toward prosperity; like the Horrorterrors did for us!"

"I guess I got lost in the fact that we're free from the struggle it took to actually get here, for a while..."

"Yeah, I get that... but _no,_ we still technically have roles! We just have to wait for it to come into place!"

"All a matter of time, right?"

"...and you've got time to spare!"

She blows a raspberry at his rapid adoption of her pun. "Haha, always!"

"I'm not sure how I'm going to adjust to eons of silence... I just hope that when the time comes I will be ready!"

"At least you won't be alone; right?"

"Of course!" he gasped, a look of bewilderment bursting forth on his visage.

"I'm sure it will go along much easier since I have you with me, _yes!_ "

"For all those handy, 'how-to-handle-situational-eternity' tips?"

" _ **No!**_ " he blurts thoughtlessly;

"Actually... Well, _yes, that too;_ but for company! Time has a way of flowing faster when you're with people you care about."

"Time is pretty funny that way,"

"You know, maybe this isn't going to be so bad!"

"I think we will get a great handle on it!"

"I mean, a part of me just wants to lie here, looking at the stars forever...

"and now, I guess I can?"

"There's no reason why not!" she shrugs.

"Well, I mean, you'd probably have to leave sooner, or later, and I guess it'd get old pretty fast..."

"Up until then, though? We can do anything!

"Lots of people tend to take that as meaning doing drastic, or unbelievable, or really cool stuff... but it includes looking at the stars for longer than you really need to as well; and those things are important too!"

He gives her hand another squeeze, as a final, contented smile spreads across his features.

"Yeah, I'd suppose they are..."

Maybe this won't be so bad, after all...


End file.
